The Sound Word

Much has been said and written about your purpose in life. In summary, there are two groups of people searching for their purpose in life. There are Christians whose purpose is defined by their relationship with Jesus, and there are those people in the secular world that will spend their lifetime trying to find what that purpose is. Since our focus for this devotional is on the Christian purpose of life, we will not spend a great deal of time looking into their search for purpose for those who believe they have evolved from primordial goo, or “star stuff” because as the facts show, if evolution is true you have no purpose for living except to stay alive as long as you can. While staying alive is a worthy goal for anyone, it hardly has defines “purpose” when speaking about the meaning of life. For some Christians the search in itself is what defines them. I submit that the search cannot be what defines you. Never giving up or never quitting is not what defines you. Sure these charac...

I Peter 1:1-2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied. I was reading in 1 Peter last night at dinner time, and was just sort of captivated by the opening verses. In the text Peter introduces himself and then addresses the letter to, “…the pilgrims of the Dispersion”. Intrigued, I asked my daughter Kayden to tell me what that meant. We bantered the words pilgrim and dispersion around a bit and she got it all figured out. She’s a bright one. But in the process of doing such, it just made for me a realization of the heart or condition of some of God’s creation. It is of this that I wish to speak today. Pilgrims are pilgrims for different reasons. The Pilgrims we first think of here in the US were puritan Christians who ...

1 Corinthians 16:13 Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Our call to make disciples is not just for the benefit of bringing others to a salvational relationship with Jesus. While this is the great commission, to make disciples of all the earth, the rewards are double (for those who are sharing as much as those who are receiving). We are blessed as much to put forth the effort to make disciples as much as they are blessed by hearing God’s good news for them, and the doctrine that God has put forward in His Word. But therein lies the focal point doesn’t it? If what we are sharing is not God’s Word – is not Truth, than what are we doing? In this third installment on the making of disciples I bring up the point of truth. We might be the best at leading by example. We may also be fantastic communicators or orators of unrivaled skill. But if we are not teaching the truth of what God has said through His Holy Word, and if we are not leading by example in a way that c...